As first revealed by Revolution in March, has launched allowing viewers to access a range of TV content on-demand. The service faces touch competition, particularly from the mighty BBC iPlayer, which offers ease of use, good streaming quality and a broad range of programmes. So how does the new kid on the block shape up?
Ease of use
The MSN video player has a clean interface utilising large images that provide a fresh look, if not slightly busy and overpowering. With its currently small library of programmes users can navigate to their show of choice through the primary and secondary navigation at the top of the page. The user can also navigate using a variety of options that sit below the page fold, this can be confusing to the user as their view is filled by an embedded hero video, which gives the impression this one video is all that is provided. The scrolling menus that allow the user to select individual shows also feel very awkward to use. The user can scroll up and down using a scroll bar but also use the navigation below the menu to navigate through a number of pages. The mixed interactions within these menus are not the most usable design.
Search
The site does not feature any search functionality. A user must navigate initially by genre then show/series or to one of the series promoted on the homepage. The library of the player is still small but search functionality will be vital when more shows are available.
Breadth of content
While the player contains some excellent shows across the genres of comedy, documentary, drama, entertainment and sci-fi the selection available is not as great as the BBC iPlayer, 4oD Catch-up or the ITV Player. While trying to maintain a selection from each category the number of show within each is limited. This selection is being expanded as the player launched last week. One advantage that the MSN video player has over players such as the iPlayer is that it is not limited to programmes from one channel or from one organisation.
Streaming quality
The quality of the player is not bad, looking very high quality until blown-up on to the full screen. The quality is an improvement on ITV Player but still has a way to go to compete with the iPlayer especially the content from the BBC HD channel.
Social tools
As with the iPlayer, ITV player and 4oD Catch-up, the MSN video player does not utilise social media to great effect. They do, however, offer links to share the site over various social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Stumbleupon. This is a good way to spread the word about such a new service.
The MSN video player is still in the beta stage and will keep improving. The catalogue of programmes will also continue to grow. While providing a slightly busy design with navigation that can feel quite clunky at times the player feels like it could become a powerful player in the online video market.
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